St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-28
Serious Comment Upon the Absence of
a Love for Home Among Dako-
tians Generally,
And the Hint Thrown Out That They
Are in the Territory Only For
the Money in It.
The Failure to Provide Market Places
or Market Houses in the Cities Cited
s as an Example.
As the Country Gets Settled the Real
Local Pride That Goes With the
Soil Will Come.

Let me tell you one thing the peo-
pie and towns of Dakota are sadly de-
nclent ill.," said a prominent citizen of
the territory to GLOBE reporter yes
terday. I'VE lack, in our towns, all
Such indispensable requisites of a farm
ing community as market houses and
market places. In every important
city IN the East, and in fact in great
many towns that can by 10 stretch of
courtesy even, be called important, are
TO be seen market houses, spaciously
punt and located in central square of
the town; or, if not this, then a wide
square with the blue sky as cover. open
TO the producer and consumer, in which
they can meet, t:ade and barter. You
may travel all along the line of the
Northern Pacific railroad, and you will
not see market house or market place
OF any kind whatever. There are towns
enough that think they are Lound to be
big places III the not far distant future.
but the people lack that peculiar quail
ty which leads men to build
MARKET HOUSES
and purchase lots or SQureS for the use
OF themselves and for the use of pos
terity.
And" said the Dakota man with a
sigh, Il am of the opinion that deep
down in the heart of the average Da-
kota man there is not that love of local
lily which is so strong in the hearts of so
many people i'll other parts of the world.
This love OF locality is the strongest the
further east we'go. You find IT in the
Eastern states, but you must go to Eu-
rope to find it in perfection. was
travelling in Belgium few wears ago
when | saw very fine illustration of
this peculiar love of Il place. and it made
me feel very sorry for theinen who gave
an example of it. l had just stepped
into railroad car at the depot at Brus-
sells When struck up an acquaintance
with a Belgian who could speak very
fluent English. About fifty Young men
got into the train together, and / Judged
from their manner that they were all
going to the same destination. asked
my companion where these young men
were going and what was their bust
| ness. lie Informed me that they were
recruits and they were going off for ser
| vice
IN THE ARMY
Tor term OF years. / asked him if they
liked to be taken away from their work
lsand their homes in THIS fashion? lie
replied in the negative. / suggested
that should have thought young men
who possessed any regard for their
future would leave country in which
| such oppression was practiced and
! would 1--we somewhere else. Nv com
panion asked where they should go? TO
this OF course | said go to the United
States of America-g0 to the great ter
ritory of Dakota. My listener was very
much scandaliZed by this suggestion,
and replied that the people of Belgium
loved their country too we'll to leave it..
Here, say, you can see binding love
for mere locality in the fullest degree.
| You will find such cities DIS New Y ork.
|. Albany, Worcester, Boston, Providence,
and many others that might name, full
OF people who, while they may be will
ing to invest some of their surplus
of cutting Off their right arms as part
with any of the real estate that they
may own. The bare suggestion that
they should pull up their stakes and
come West is SacrilegiouS. How differ
ent is the condition of things in Dakota.
l could give you the names of scores of
men who few years ago Sc med to be
thoroughly welded to the territory and
its interests, who are to-day in Duluth
or st. Paul or Minneapolis or somewhere
else. They are good citizens wherever
they are, but they were
CITIZENS OF DAKOTA
III IcNouuc Oilly, DIS regret 10 say so
many of us are. l Say'that- the reason
we have no market places in our coun-
try is because we lack, for the present
at least, the peculiar twist which the
Belglans possess i'll exaggerated form.
1t is true, of course, that your merchant
and professional man in the Dakota
town will talk locality till YOU can't
rest. They will convince you that they
have the most intense love for their
town-they love it for its own sake
they love their town and county because
they are a perfect paradise-the very
part OF Gods fOOtStOOl that is the most
worth living in. Very possibly, while
they are talking, they are looking for
an opportunity to sell out at good fig
ure, SO that they may have chance to
go further west or east, as the fancy
may take them. l don't say that this
spirit is necessarily evil. If some of us
were not like this, how would our great
country ever get settled up? In the
great West the sentiment connected
with land is reduced to the minimum;
in the East it is at the maximum. The
house of the average Dakotaian is to him
a homestead only in name. But it is all
right, as the country gets more settled
the real local pride will grow; not the
pride which has its foundation in love
for ducats merely, but the pride that
goes with the soil; the pride which is a
part of the very instinct of the man
the pride which is surcharged with
pOetical sentiment"